Victoria's downtown businesses continue to complain of the lack of parking.
Sasha Appleton From “the Cobbler” on View Street says she has a monthly pass to the View Street Parkade but often can’t get a spot because it is full by 10:00am.
“It’s affecting our customers and affecting business,” Appleton told C-Fax’s Joe Perkins. “We have lost a lot spaces in the past few years and the city isn’t giving us any encouragement that they (spaces) are going to be replaced anytime soon. “
Victoria mayor Lisa Helps says the complaints aren't falling on deaf ears.
“We are working with Downtown Victoria Business Association and the Chamber in this period of transition to make sure that the businesses in downtown are thriving,” said Helps.
Business owners like Appleton are calling on the city to build another parkade.
Helps says building a new parkade shouldn't be in the plans though.
“With autonomous vehicles, the city needs to invest in the kind of infrastructure that we are going to need for the 21st century and I don’t think another parkade is that.”
Helps says there are creative ways of making more parking like encouraging new business developments to create more parking.